YouTube's week from hell: How the debate over free speech online exploded after a conservative star with millions of subscribers was accused of homophobic harassment

YouTube had one of its roughest weeks in recent memory after
the Vox journalist Carlos Maza accused the platform of letting
the conservative star Steven Crowder continually harass him with
homophobic remarks in his videos.

The accusations sparked an investigation, which eventually
found that Crowder had not violated any YouTube policies.

After a large amount of public backlash, YouTube demonetized
Crowder's channel, sparking even more complaints from both sides
of the aisle.

The conflict is only the latest in the emerging battle over
how to control speech online.

Before this week, Carlos Maza, also known as @gaywonk on Twitter,
was a minor celebrity among those interested in media and
politics. Only a few followers shy of 100,000 on the
microblogging platform, Maza carved a space out for himself on
the progressive and wonky internet through his video essays on
Vox, previously hosted on the progressive media watchdog site
Media Matters for America, that provide an ounce of opinion and
graphics for each ounce of reporting and facts.

But Maza's profile is quickly rising after he accused Google's
YouTube at the end of last month of failing to
enforce its harassment policies on videos made by the
conservative media star Steven Crowder, who has 3.8 million
subscribers on YouTube.

What followed Maza's tweetstorm calling out YouTube was just the
latest conflict in the emerging war over free speech, hate
speech, and content moderation on the largest platforms on the
internet.

"Lispy queer" and "lispy angry sprite" were just a few of the
characterizations Crowder used to describe Maza, shown in a
compilation video Maza posted to Twitter that now has over 3
million views.

Crowder, who hosts a roundtable discussion and sketch show with a
conservative bent, has repeatedly featured segments ripping on
videos made by Maza, in which he contradicts their ideas while
also jabbing at Maza's sexual and ethnic identity.

In his original tweetstorm, Maza said the personal attacks led to
doxxing and harassment from Crowder's supporters and were in
violation of YouTube's policy on harassment and bullying.

Specifically, Maza pointed to the following types of content that
YouTube discourages in its harassment policy:

Content that is deliberately posted in order to humiliate
someone

Content that makes hurtful and negative personal
comments/videos about another person

Content that incites others to harass or threaten
individuals on or off YouTube

Crowder responded by claiming that Maza's efforts to get his videos removed were part of a larger campaign to silence independent conservative creators.

Screenshot / YouTube

In a response, Crowder
acknowledged his use of the language against Maza, insisting that
it was comedic and used only when arguing against Maza's ideas
and saying he had never promoted doxxing or targeted harassment
and condemned it.

Crowder went on to claim that Maza's efforts to flag his videos
were part of a larger campaign from big media companies to
silence conservative creators, noting a $200 million
investment from NBC Universal in Vox Media in 2015, calling
the situation comparable to "David versus Goliath."

"This is a war we will fight to the absolute bitter end," Crowder
said.

Maza, anticipating the argument, tweeted earlier that his concern
was YouTube: "I don't give a flying f--- if conservatives
on YouTube disagree with me. But by refusing to enforce its
anti-harassment policy, YouTube is helping incredibly powerful
cyberbullies organize and target people they disagree
with."

High-profile figures on both sides of the aisle have chimed in on the case.

Irene Jiang / Business Insider

The dispute among Maza, YouTube, and Crowder quickly gained
attention, becoming political and personal.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York retweeted
Maza, adding "Bigotry + disinformation campaigns are often
the most 'engaging' (& rewarded) due to their inflammatory
nature."

The Olympic bronze medalist Adam Rippon, who is gay, retweeted
Maza saying "people still get constantly harassed online
just for being LGBTQ+."

Maza posted that he had received ramped-up negative
attention, saying he was receiving a flood of death threats and
harassment and highlighting that a "Carlos Maza is a f-g" shirt
had gone on sale online, an imitation of a "socialism is for
f-gs" shirt that Crowder sold.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas brought attention to the
debate,
commenting: "This is ridiculous. YouTube is not the Star
Chamber - stop playing God & silencing those voices you
disagree with. This will not end well."

Maza
condemned Cruz for supporting Crowder, writing, "A U.S.
senator is coming to the defense of someone who spent two years
calling me a 'lispy queer,'" to which Cruz
responded: "Sigh. This individual claims to be a
'journalist.' Then he throws a fit & demands that YouTube
CENSOR views he doesn't like. Here's a crazy idea: if you don't
like what @scrowder says, ARGUE AGAINST HIM."

YouTube also faced criticism from Glenn Greenwald, a
prominent gay journalist, in an appearance on Tucker Carlson's
Fox News program, where he frequently provides perspectives that
flummox progressives. "YouTube caved in," Greenwald said,
defending Crowder. "Not in defense of the marginalized person,
but in defense of the powerful one, the one who despite being gay
and Latino works for a major media conglomerate."

YouTube announced that Crowder's videos had not violated its policies.

YouTube; Samantha Lee/Business Insider

On June 4, five days after Maza's original tweets on the matter,
YouTube
responded via Twitter, writing:

"Our teams spent the last few days conducting an in-depth
review of the videos flagged to us, and while we found language
that was clearly hurtful, the videos as posted don't violate our
policies. We've included more info below to explain this
decision. As an open platform, it's crucial for us to allow
everyone-from creators to journalists to late-night TV hosts-to
express their opinions w/in the scope of our policies. Opinions
can be deeply offensive, but if they don't violate our policies,
they'll remain on our site. Even if a video remains on our site,
it doesn't mean we endorse/support that viewpoint. There are
other aspects of the channel that we're still evaluating-we'll be
in touch with any further updates."

In a statement to Gizmodo, YouTube elaborated upon its decision,
writing: "In videos flagged to YouTube, Crowder has not
instructed his viewers to harass Maza on YouTube or any other
platform and the main point of these videos was not to harass or
threaten, but rather to respond to the opinion."

Following the decision, YouTube received a torrent of criticism.

Josh Edelson/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Vox's publisher, Melissa Bell, criticized the decision in a
statement to The Verge, saying, "By refusing to
take a stand on hate speech, they allow the worst of their
communities to hide behind cries of 'free speech' and 'fake news'
all while increasingly targeting people with the most offensive
and odious harassment."

Ellen Pao, the former Reddit executive and victim of online
harassment, wrote:
"Wrong decision. Platforms don't operate in silos; technology has
made our world interconnected. Cross-platform harassment is real.
YouTube should look at the impact of the behavior across all
platforms--and from followers as well. The mental anguish is real
and can't be ignored."

Numerous journalists also shared dismay over the
decision.

Notably, Google began receiving criticism from inside the company.

Reuters

The decision became a flashpoint for an increasingly vocal
faction of activists who are employed by Google. A group called
Googlers Against Hate began a social-media campaign targeting the
decision, using the hashtag #NoPrideInYT and encouraging
employees to speak out.

Employees who spoke with media outlets like Business Insider and
The Verge expressed dismay.

"It's hard to put my shoes on every day and go to work when I
don't think the company I work for supports my identity," a
Google engineer
told Business Insider.

Another Google employee
reportedly told The Verge: "Internal outreach to
executives has not been effective in years. They ignore us
completely unless there is extreme unrest. We can't trust them
anymore to listen in good faith."

Google is now facing questions from LGBT organizations who already have, or are considering, cutting ties, including San Francisco Pride.

Melia Robinson/Business Insider

In response to YouTube's decision, multiple LGBT groups have
begun assessing their work with Google.

The nonprofit Pride Foundation of Maryland said it would remove
its content from YouTube in response to the issue and called for
other groups to do so as well.

On Wednesday, according to
the San Francisco Chronicle, a former Google employee named
Tyler Breisacher petitioned the San Francisco Pride board
in a meeting to keep Google from marching in the San Francisco
Pride parade.

Following Breisacher's comments, San Francisco Pride
reportedly contacted Google with concerns over the Crowder-Maza
incident.

A day after making its initial decision, YouTube appeared to respond to the criticism by announcing that it had demonetized Crowder's videos. Backlash from all sides seemed to intensify.

YouTube / StevenCrowder

Following its initial announcement, YouTube published an update
saying it had demonetized Crowder's videos - crippling his
ability to make money from ads on his YouTube content - based on
"a pattern of egregious actions" that the company said
"harmed the broader community."

Later, YouTube clarified
that Crowder could have his monetization reinstated if he removed
links to his merchandise store that sold a "Socialism is for
F*gs" shirt and addressed certain "harmful" content on his
channel.

The decision left both Crowder and Maza upset.

Maza says
that by simply demonetizing Crowder, who claims to have
previously been mostly demonetized anyways, YouTube is simply
encouraging him to lean harder into his controversial statements
because he YouTube has shown it won't delete his videos.

Crowder also appeared to be upset by the decision. In a video
titled "WE'RE DEMONETIZED!" he said YouTube had "managed to come
up with a solution that pisses everybody off," expressing outrage
that the company had demonetized "the biggest conservative
channel in the history of YouTube" because "he didn't violate any
guidelines, but we gotta' give the piranhas something." He went
on to say the employee who came up with the solution was
"probably not fired because he's probably gay."

The same day, YouTube announced that it would begin removing certain extremist, bigoted content including videos promoting neo-Nazism. Some saw strategic timing in the move.

Reuters

In an
announcement that came the same day as Crowder's
demonetization, YouTube said it would begin removing
"videos alleging that a group is superior in order to
justify discrimination, segregation, or exclusion," along with
videos denying the occurrence of mass tragedies.

According to
The New York Times, this will affect thousands of videos and
channels promoting neo-Nazism, white supremacy, and other extreme
ideologies.

For many critics, the announcement came off as a small
token that was transparently attempting to deflect criticism from
the company. Gizmodo's Bryan Menegus
called it a "vague mea culpa" and the "bare minimum" for
addressing YouTube's hate problem.

Others noted that Google and YouTube had made similar
promises before.

Shortly after the announcement, Ford Fischer, a journalist who
documents rallies and protests, tweeted that his account had been
demonetized, noting that YouTube had cited a video he uploaded of
protesters confronting a Holocaust denier.

The media watchdog Right Wing Watch noted
that one of its videos had been taken down because of a clip it
used from a conservative claiming that YouTube was controlled by
"the synagogue of Satan." The original clip from the host Rick
Wiles was reportedly not taken down.

Others who were questionably caught up in the purge
included a history teacher whose channel used archival footage of
the Nazis and a Southern Poverty Law Center video of an interview
with a Holocaust denier.

Though Crowder's channel has been demonetized, his following has
only grown since the controversy began. Since Maza originally
posted his tweets, Crowder has gained nearly 90,000 subscribers,
according to SocialBlade.

Crowder is now encouraging viewers to support him through his
merchandise and personal website.

The dispute among YouTube, Maza, and Crowder is just the latest in an increasingly fiery debate over the balance between hate speech and free speech.

Alex Jones/YouTube

The dispute between Maza and Crowder is just the latest in the
emergent tug-of-war between conservative free-speech advocates
who often find themselves being accused of hate and harassment
and progressive advocates for proactive censorship of what they
believe to be hate speech or targeted abuse.

Following the removal of accounts from far-right and fringe
figures including the conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones, who is being sued over his false claims that the
Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting never happened; the
YouTuber
Carl Benjamin, who was kicked off the crowdfunding platform
Patreon for racially charged comments made in an old YouTube
video; and Milo Yiannopoulos, Crowder, and others have
popularized the idea that there is a growing movement to silence
conservative voices.

The question of online censorship has quickly become a political
issue.

In a recent segment on Fox News, the host Laura Ingraham
highlighted online censorship and faced backlash after using
a white supremacist as an example of a "prominent voice" who had
been censored.

Republican members of Congress have
questioned Facebook over its actions taken against President
Donald Trump supporters Diamond and Silk (Diamond and Silk were
also questioned and appeared to
lie in their testimony).

On Sunday, Trump tweeted support for conservatives who had been
removed from Twitter.

Maza, among other progressives, argues that many right-wing
personalities on and offline had used an appeal to free speech to
excuse the spread of hate, harassment, and bigotry. The urgency
around the issue has intensified after numerous suspects in mass
shootings have been linked to online communities that champion
free speech, such as 8chan and Gab, which have quickly turned
into virtual homes for neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

Advocates of increased censorship argue that domestic
radicalization will continue to rise unless extremist content is
identified and controlled online.